Antibacterial agents such as oxazolidinones are a class of known orally-active, synthetic antibacterial agents and there are numerous references in the art disclosing a variety of oxazolidinone derivatives. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,705,799 and 5,523,403 and European Patent Application 0,316,594 disclose substituted phenyl-2-oxazolidinones, including the sulfides, sulfoxides, sulfones, sulfonamides, nitriles, acetamides and a tropone ring. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,948,801; 5,254,577 and 5,130,316, disclose arylbenzene oxazolidinyl compounds, wherein the aryl includes the (un)substituted phenyl and pyridyl groups. European Patent Applications 0,697,412; 0,694,544; 0,694,543 and 0,693,491 disclose 5 to 9-membered heteroaryl-oxazolidinones having one to three atoms selected from the group consisting of sulfur, nitrogen and oxygen.
This invention describes isoxazoline derivatives which are effective as antibacterial agents. The compounds of the invention are novel and distinct from all other oxazolidinones in that the usual oxazolidinone rings are replaced by an isoxazoline moiety. These compounds have antibacterial activity comparable to the corresponding oxazolidinones. They are effective against a number of human and veterinary pathogens, including gram-positive aerobic bacteria such as multiply-resistant staphylococci and streptococci, as well as anaerobic organisms such as bacteroides and clostridia species, and acid-fast organisms such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium avium.